Schwarzenegger’s Shrewd Political Ploy — I Was Wrong

When I tell them I met Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger at the Chronicle editorial board meeting this week everybody asks the same question:

How tall is he, really?

AP

It wasn’t exactly “The Tonight Show,” but Schwarzenegger came to the Chronicle.

The answer is, pretty tall. I looked him right in the eye, which would make him a smudge less than six feet. He’s certainly no Alan Ladd, the old time movie actor who was so short (5-5) that he had to stand on a box to kiss his leading ladies.

But it is an interesting reaction because it goes to what is still, after all this time, the central fact about Schwarzegger — people are intrigued by him. Not as a politician, although that’s a part of it, but as a guy. How tall is he? Does he look buffed up? (Not especially, although his upper body is impressively thick.) What’s he really like anyhow?

In terms of the last question, I have no idea. A group of us sat with Schwarzenegger for an hour while he took the editorial board’s best shots (and a few cream puffs). An hour, in a formal setting, is no way to know anyone. But when we left, I had to agree with the editor who said, “You know, it is pretty hard not to like the guy.”

It should be said that’s a surprisingly common reaction. Senate President Pro Tem Don Perata, as forceful a Democrat as there is in the state, once told me the same thing. He might disagree with Schwarzenegger on issues, but he had to admit he was a charming fellow.

In fact, one of the questions Schwarzenegger did have a bit of trouble answering was why does he call himself a Republican. Overall, he said, he was fiscally conservative, socially moderate, and environmentally progressive. So where does that fit?

By the way, the ed board didn’t give him a free pass on the environmental bragging. Chronicle political reporter Carla Marinucci called him on it, asking how he could drive huge, petroleum-sucking Hummers?

I am guessing it is not the first time he has heard that one. Besides saying he was keeping the cars in the garage, he added that he’d converted one of them to mixed fuel use and another is now powered by hydrogen. Given the fact that he still owns cars that are approximantly the size of a school bus, it was a nifty response.

No word, by the way, on whether he has switched over to smoking hydrogen cigars.

To be perfectly honest, I don’t know if I will vote for him. He’s the prohibitive favorite at this point, of course, but as editorial page editor John Diaz asked, if he is re-elected, “Which Arnold will we be getting?” Will it be Mr. Charming or the slash and burn gov. who so alienated schoolteachers and firemen with his headstrong special election?

Schwarzenegger’s answer was as long and complicated as you would expect from a political veteran. He may not have been at this long, but he knows how to run out the clock on tough issues, reciting stats and facts until everyone has forgotten the question.

But I was struck by something he said, and he said it more than once.

I was wrong.

His wildly unpopular overhaul of the public employee pension plan was “absolutely wrong.” His in-your-face approach when he was elected was also a mistake, he said.

“That was obviously the wrong way to go,” he said. “Starting out the State of the State speech in that aggressive tone was the wrong way to go.”

OK, now, cynics will say that Schwarzenegger hasn’t given up on those unpopular ideas. He’s said they were just presented in the wrong way, and that they are still worthwhile concepts. And maybe that is true.

But how often, in the current political climate, have we heard those words — I was wrong. I made a mistake.

It doesn’t happen very often. And when it does, it is often because the grand jury has the goods on you and you are attempting to save the shreds of your career.

That’s not the case here. If anything, Schwarzenegger has some political capital to spend. If he’d like, he could complain about how the Democrats mis-represented his programs, and smeared his ideas. He isn’t doing that.

His support of changed to Prop 98, which could have resulted in cuts to funding to schools when spending exceeds revenue, was wildly unpopular. Ok, he said this week, he got it.

“Loud and clear,” he said. “The people spoke on Prop 98. Therefore we are not going to touch it again.”

I was wrong. I made a mistake. Interesting admissions for a politician.

And surely someone is going to notice that he’s done nothing but increase his approval ratings since he started bluntly admitting his errors.